ALSO Group increases net profit by 14 percent in the 1st half year

„We are very pleased with our performance in the first six month of 2016. We have again been able to increase profit significantly stronger than net sales, although we decisively invested in our business. We have developed our business in Poland and the Benelux and we will keep on expanding our activities”, said Gustavo Möller-Hergt, CEO of ALSO Holding AG (SIX: ALSN).

Central Europe market segment

While net sales softened by 2 percent to 2 304 million euros Central Europe market segment showed a considerably stronger EBT margin of 1.5 percent compared to 2015 (0.9 percent). This is amongst others due to successful measurements which ALSO Switzerland and ALSO France conducted to stabilise profit. In addition business in Germany succeeded remarkably above average.

Previous-year period results for market segments have been revised since ALSO International B.V. as well as ALSO Nederland B.V. (Benelux) have newly been allocated to the Northern/Eastern Europe market segment and are no longer part of Central Europe market segment.

Northern/Eastern Europe market segment

In the Northern/Eastern Europe market segment net sales increased by 11 percent to 1 467 million euros while the EBT margin dropped to 0.4 percent from 1.2 percent in the first half year 2015. This decrease is especially due to initial investments in business expansion in Poland and the Benelux as well as investment in a warehouse in Finland which will reduce costs.

International expansion

International expansion remains central pillar of ALSO’s growth strategy. During the last six months ALSO opened up markets in Slovenia and Belgium. ALSO Polska, founded in 2015, is as expected still in its development phase. Pirkkala, Finland recently witnessed the opening of ALSO’s latest and state of the art logistics center.

In addition to that, business development was taken forward by new strategic partnerships and cooperations. Microsoft is being supported by ALSO in building its business area „Workplace as a Service“. Together with Logicom ALSO brings cloud-based software services to its customers in Southern Europe and the Middle East.

Outlook on 2016

ALSO is well under way to increase Group net profit for the whole year of 2016 compared to 2015.

• Direct link to the Interim Report 2016